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37 posts from July 2007

Jul 23, 2007

Welcome visitors from City of Brass. Aziz was kind enough to give me a shout moons ago and I've been negligent in acknowledging you. But Hazrat Issa, it's been two weeks and I'm still getting huge numbers of pass through hits. A shout back to Aziz who has been a good virtual friend and has helped me with some of my own research. Can't wait to find a way to meet him in person. His blog is one of the first Shi'ah blogs I found, and still one of the few I read regularly. I will eventually get around to updating the site and adding the “Brass Crescent” feed.

Also want to thank Irving of Darvish who has become a regular commentor on the site. To have someone of his caliber as a regular reader is a true honor.

As always, Rachel of Velveteen Rabbi who's always around real world and virtual world.

Finally, I have joined Facebook under my real name, so feel free to hit me up there as well.

In case you didn't hear, President Bush bans torture. Maybe. Yes, maybe. It's kind of sad that we need to have an explicit ban against torture (again. Hi Geneva Conventions). It's worse that we're not sure if it is a ban.

Just in case you think the administration might start believing in the rule of law and right, have no fear, unfettered power is still on their agenda. I thought it was scare mongering, then I followed the links. As a Muslim I can be Gitmo'd. As a born American I can have my entire life taken away without any reason given.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Read this article at TPM for context. I agree on the conclusion, but probably not the process.

Most Muslims hate AQ. They stand in opposition to the way most of live. In fact, their very raison d'être is to stand in opposition to the way most Muslims live. As I ask constantly, what is AQ's positive agenda other than to live the way their master OBL wants them to? I need to do a longer post on why they've had such success.

In any event, I'm not convinced a grand coalition between Shi'ah and Sunni will now arise to fight AQ in the absence of the US. I think that this would have happened had we not overstayed our “welcome.” Bush policy has been to buy into the master narrative, most forcefully propagated by the Saudis and to a certain extent by the Iranians, that Sunnis and Shi'ah's have a long history of division that makes them forever divided. Essentially we magnified real theological differences, which generally don't divide Muslims in their quotidian interactions, into insurmountable political differences. We marginalized Sistani for fear of creating another Khomeini, empowered Sadr, insulted every Sunni we could find, and demonized the secularists. Because of the lack of the expertise in this administration, we followed the plot drafted by our “enemy” Iran and our “friend” Saudia Arabia. We've been following this plot for so long that it is now the story in Iraq, so while AQ is hated, I'm not sure bridges will be rebuilt to fight AQ in a systematic matter. AQ is now a fourth power, with Kurds, Shi'ah Arabs, and Sunni Arabs, battling for the ability to define Iraq. The major difference is that there is no possible political solution with AQ.

[update]: Josh Marshall of TPM was kind enough to point out that I was being sloppy in my terminology. When I mention AQ in this context, I mean AQ in Mesopotamia. This group has borrowed some rough trapping from AQ - being opposed to Muslims and how they live and being opposed the US and being opposed to modernity unless it can kill people - but who otherwise have no connection to OBL's AQ. This group is composed primarily of anti-colonialists (but not nationalist) fighters and “foreign elements” mostly from our “friends” Saudi Arabia. Since so many, up to half of the foreign fighters are from SA, they can easily push the divide between Sunni and Shi'ah, giving themselves additional breathing room.

Jul 17, 2007

Just some interesting things related to the tech world I found floating around.

Open Library (via David) - "What if there was a library which held every book? Not every book on sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book—a key part of our planet's cultural legacy."

Ethan on why cats should be censored - Not really. I believe they should, but that's not his point. His point is that for every technology that allows us to do cat-blogging we are creating a new vehicle for samizdat. (Unfortunately, he doesn't use that word. Yes, it's overused, but it's oh so cool looking.)

Jonathan does a bit on technology and non-technology (edumacation people) are creating new networks for gender empowerment. Two data points, but still interesting.

David Weinberger (again) is sounding an awful lot like a free-marketeer. I'm wondering if that's permissible for liberals. On a related note, am I the only one who thinks Bush's conservative government has done more to give state support to US corporations than any other government has done for their corporations except communist governments?

Read an article about a new rapper Brother Ali. Tunes sounded slick, but his name caught my attention. Was he Muslim? Was he Muslim-chic (yes, it exists in hip-hop and in dress)? Did some b/g, and he is Muslim. Tunes are slick.

The Revealer takes down the latest politicization of the Prophet Jesus. Money quote: "Levenick's review isn't just boldly ignorant, it's an example of the secularization of new evangelicalism, that strain of Protestant Christianity that insists Christ was both revolutionary and conservative."

Moses was an Egyptian. Jesus was a Jew. Swarthy people everywhere. Deal with it.

In hatred. Not so bad really. Just the usual amount of misinformation to make us sound more violent than the average religious group. I can see CNN's treatment of this now "Violent Center Funded by London, Jihad U."